When Tablespoon asked me to blog about Noodle Weenies, I swallowed a giggle and stifled a rude joke. I mean, noodle … weenies? Sounded like a bad episode of Grey’s Anatomy to me.
Then I looked at this article we found on Helablog.com and adjusted my mind’s-eye vision. Noodle Weenies — brilliant!
You can make these at Mach 2 (that’s fast). And oh yeah, they are way fun — and easy too.
Kids and adults alike will try to figure out how you shoved those limp little lengths of pasta through their husky hunks of hot dog! No need to spill the beans — it can be your secret. If your kids are younger than 10, they might even think you’re a cooler wizard than Harry Potter.
Here’s how easy it is:
Start with 4 hot dogs and 80 long spaghetti noodles (roughly 1/4 pound of pasta). With a sharp knife, cut the rounded ends off of the hot dogs, then cut each dog into 4 equal chunks, like this:
Thread 5 noodles through each of the meaty chunks so the meat is in the middle of the noodle. They pierce the soft hot dogs super easily. I put one noodle in the center with 4 noodles around that, Sputnik-style:
When you’re done, you have a pile of ‘em ready to go:
Add about 10-12 cups of water to a large pot and heat on high until the water comes to a rolling boil. No need to add salt or oil to the water. The hot dogs will take care of that stuff. Add the Noodle Weenies and reduce the heat to medium (keeping the water boiling).
Tip: Don’t push the noodles down into the water or they will break and ruin the concept! Let them cook down until soft, then gently stir them now and then just to keep them from getting too cozy with each other.
Cook per directions on the pasta package. (Mine were perfectly done in 10 minutes.) Use tongs to remove each weenie from the water, or drain the whole batch in a colander.
Serve with a small salad, Muir Glen pasta sauce (I added Muir Glen Organic diced tomatoes to make a beautiful chunky sauce), and Pillsbury breadsticks on the side.
Now if they’d only had this recipe back when they wrote the song, “On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheeeeese…” Yep. They wouldn’t have lost that poor meatball when somebody sneezed.
More Hot Dog Madness
If your fam digs dogs, then here are a few more recipes to try:
- Mini Crescent Dogs
- Sloppy Hot Dogs
- Ultimate Bacon Cheesedogs
- Chili-Cheese Dog Pizza
- Grilled Salsa Hot Dog Wraps
Featured recipe: Noodle Weenies
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